Monday, July 24, 2017

D'Angelo's
platinum-certified debut, 1995's neo-soul masterpiece Brown Sugar, is newly
remastered and expanded for a 2CD and digital Deluxe Edition to be released
August 25 by Virgin/UMe. Remastered by GRAMMY®-winning engineer Russell
Elevado, Brown Sugar's Deluxe Edition adds 21 rare tracks, including remixes by
CJ Mackintosh, Dallas Austin, King Tech, Erick Sermon and Incognito, as well as
instrumentals and a cappella versions. Of the 21 newly added tracks, 15 were
previously available only on vinyl and seven will make their commercial release
debuts on the new edition.

Released July 4, 1995, D'Angelo's Brown Sugar album heralded
a new direction for soul music, bridging tradition and innovation. D'Angelo,
then 21 years old, wrote, arranged, performed and produced most of the album himself,
inspired by classic jazz, gospel, soul, and hip-hop and using a mix of vintage
and new equipment to realize his creative vision.

In the Deluxe Edition booklet, D'Angelo's Brown Sugar
co-producer Bob Power writes: "D was one of those artists that came not
just fully formed, but truly genre-bending; genre-creating is really more like
it."

D'Angelo's Brown Sugar collaborators also included A Tribe
Called Quest's Ali Shaheed Muhammad for the title track and Raphael Saadiq for
"Lady." The first album to be dubbed "neo-soul," Brown
Sugar spent 65 weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart and drew praise from
music critics around the world. In his four-star album review for Rolling
Stone, Cheo Hodari Coker wrote, "Brown Sugar is a reminder of where
R&B has been and, if the genre is to resurrect its creative relevance like
a phoenix rising from the ashes, where it needs to go."

"Young D'Angelo was duly anointed the new musical
messiah, charged with leading the culture into a new promised land,"
writes Nelson George in his Deluxe Edition essay.

Brown Sugar received four GRAMMY Award® nominations. The
groundbreaking album is featured in Mojo's list of 100 Modern Classics and in
Rolling Stone's Essential Recordings of the '90s.

D'Angelo:Brown Sugar
(Deluxe Edition) [2CD, digital]

CD 1 (Remastered album, plus bonus tracks)

1. Brown Sugar

2. Alright

3. Jonz In My Bonz

4. Me And Those
Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine

5. Sh*t, Damn,
Motherf*cker

6. Smooth

7. Cruisin'

8. When We Get By

9. Lady

10. Higher

Bonus Tracks

11. Brown Sugar A Cappella (released on 12" single)

12. Me And Those Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine A Cappella (released
on promotional 12" single)